Prize Recipient

Evgany P. Velikhov
Russian Academy of Sciences

Citation:

"For their unique contributions to Soviet Glasnot, which was a major factor in reversing the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States."

Background:

In March 1983, Velikov and Sagdeev organized the Soviet Scientists' Committee for Peace Against the Nuclear Threat, which published a physics-based critique of the US SDI program three years later. In 1987, the committee began a collaboratiion with American scientists, led by Frank von Hippel, to produce studies on ways to diminish the nuclear threat. These science-based studies helped open up the Soviet Union to on-site inspections of Soviet nuclear facilities and the implacement of seismographs near the Soviet test site in Kazakhstan.